# List of best-selling albums by year in the United States

This is a list of the best-selling albums by year in the United States, published by American music magazine Billboard since 1956 as year-end rankings of album sales. Until 1991, the Billboard album chart was based on a survey of representative retail outlets that determined a ranking, not a tally of actual sales. Weekly surveys and year-end charts by Billboard and other publications such as now defunct Cash Box magazine sometimes differed. For instance, during the 1960s and 1970s, the number-one album as determined by these two publications differed in 10 out of 20 years. From 1992 onwards, the Billboard year-end and weekly charts were calculated by Nielsen SoundScan. Note that this slightly differs from prior Billboard year-end album charts, which were a measure of chart performances over twelve months from around December to November (cutoff determined by Billboard's publication schedule) rather than actual total sales. In addition, certain additions post-2015 may differ from best-selling albums in the United States of the Nielsen SoundScan era, which includes album-equivalent units by means of streaming.
Harry Belafonte's Calypso (1956) was the first record to be recognized as a year's top-selling album by Billboard, when it started tracking sales figures. American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is the first and only artist to have eight of their albums become best-selling records of their respective years. She accomplished this with Fearless (2009), 1989 (2014), Reputation (2017), Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Midnights (2022), 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023) and The Tortured Poets Department (2024). American acts Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Eminem, and British acts Elton John and Adele have had two of their albums be the top-sellers in two separate years. American singer Michael Jackson's 1982 album, Thriller became the best-selling record in the country for two consecutive years in 1983 and 1984. Other albums to achieve the same accomplishment included the My Fair Lady Original Cast Recording from the hit 1956 Broadway production in 1957 and 1958, the original soundtrack of West Side Story in 1962 and 1963, Adele's 21 in 2011 and 2012, and 25 in 2015 and 2016. English group Spice Girls are the only girl group to appear on the list, as their debut record Spice was the best-selling album of 1997.

## 1950s

| Year | Artist(s) | Nationality | Album |
| 1956 | Harry Belafonte | United States | Calypso |
| 1957 | Original Broadway Cast | United States | My Fair Lady |
| 1958 | Original Broadway Cast | United States | My Fair Lady |
| 1959 | Henry Mancini | United States | Music from Peter Gunn |

## 1960s

| Year | Artist(s) | Nationality | Album |
| 1960 | Original Broadway Cast | – | The Sound of Music |
| 1961 | Original Broadway Cast | – | Camelot |
| 1962 | Soundtrack | – | West Side Story |
| 1963 | Soundtrack | – | West Side Story |
| 1964 | Original Broadway Cast | – | Hello, Dolly! |
| 1965 | Soundtrack | – | Mary Poppins |
| 1966 | Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass | United States | Whipped Cream & Other Delights |
| 1967 | The Monkees | United States | More of The Monkees |
| 1968 | The Jimi Hendrix Experience | United States | Are You Experienced? |
| 1969 | Iron Butterfly | United States | In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida |

## 1970s

| Year | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album |
| 1970 | Simon and Garfunkel | United States | Bridge over Troubled Water |
| 1971 | Various Artists | – | Jesus Christ Superstar |
| 1972 | Neil Young | Canada | Harvest |
| 1973 | War | United States | The World Is a Ghetto |
| 1974 | Elton John | United Kingdom | Goodbye Yellow Brick Road |
| 1975 | Elton John | United Kingdom | Elton John's Greatest Hits |
| 1976 | Peter Frampton | United Kingdom / United States | Frampton Comes Alive |
| 1977 | Fleetwood Mac | United Kingdom / United States | Rumours |
| 1978 | Soundtrack / Bee Gees | – | Saturday Night Fever |
| 1979 | Billy Joel | United States | 52nd Street |

## 1980s

| Year | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album |
| 1980 | Pink Floyd | United Kingdom | The Wall |
| 1981 | REO Speedwagon | United States | Hi Infidelity |
| 1982 | Asia | United Kingdom | Asia |
| 1983 | Michael Jackson | United States | Thriller |
| 1984 | Michael Jackson | United States | Thriller |
| 1985 | Bruce Springsteen | United States | Born in the U.S.A. |
| 1986 | Whitney Houston | United States | Whitney Houston |
| 1987 | Bon Jovi | United States | Slippery When Wet |
| 1988 | George Michael | United Kingdom | Faith |
| 1989 | Bobby Brown | United States | Don't Be Cruel |

## 1990s

| Year | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Sales |
| 1990 | Janet Jackson | United States | Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 | NA |
| 1991 | Garth Brooks | United States | Ropin' the Wind | 4,000,000 |
| 1991 | Mariah Carey | United States | Mariah Carey | 3,380,000 |
| 1992 | Billy Ray Cyrus | United States | Some Gave All | 4,832,000 |
| 1993 | Whitney Houston (Soundtrack) | – | The Bodyguard | 5,460,000 |
| 1994 | Elton John (Soundtrack) | – | The Lion King | 4,934,000 |
| 1995 | Hootie & the Blowfish | United States | Cracked Rear View | 7,020,000 |
| 1996 | Alanis Morissette | Canada | Jagged Little Pill | 7,380,000 |
| 1997 | Spice Girls | United Kingdom | Spice | 5,302,000 |
| 1998 | James Horner / Soundtrack | – | Titanic | 9,338,000 |
| 1999 | Backstreet Boys | United States | Millennium | 9,445,732 |

## 2000s

| Year | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Sales |
| 2000 | NSYNC | United States | No Strings Attached | 9,936,000 |
| 2001 | Linkin Park | United States | Hybrid Theory | 4,813,000 |
| 2002 | Eminem | United States | The Eminem Show | 7,608,000 |
| 2003 | 50 Cent | United States | Get Rich or Die Tryin' | 6,536,000 |
| 2004 | Usher | United States | Confessions | 7,979,000 |
| 2005 | Mariah Carey | United States | The Emancipation of Mimi | 4,969,000 |
| 2006 | Various artists | – | High School Musical | 3,719,000 |
| 2007 | Josh Groban | United States | Noël | 3,699,000 |
| 2008 | Lil Wayne | United States | Tha Carter III | 2,874,000 |
| 2009 | Taylor Swift | United States | Fearless | 3,217,000 |

## 2010s

| Year | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Sales |
| 2010 | Eminem | United States | Recovery | 3,415,000 |
| 2011 | Adele | United Kingdom | 21 | 5,824,000 |
| 2012 | Adele | United Kingdom | 21 | 4,410,000 |
| 2013 | Justin Timberlake | United States | The 20/20 Experience | 2,430,000 |
| 2014 | Taylor Swift | United States | 1989 | 3,661,000 |
| 2015 | Adele | United Kingdom | 25 | 7,441,000 |
| 2016 | Adele | United Kingdom | 25 | 1,731,000 |
| 2017 | Taylor Swift | United States | Reputation | 1,903,000 |
| 2018 | Various artists | N/A | The Greatest Showman | 1,491,000 |
| 2019 | Taylor Swift | United States | Lover | 1,085,000 |

## 2020s

| Year | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Sales |
| 2020 | Taylor Swift | United States | Folklore | 1,276,000 |
| 2021 | Adele | United Kingdom | 30 | 1,464,000 |
| 2022 | Taylor Swift | United States | Midnights | 1,818,000 |
| 2023 | Taylor Swift | United States | 1989 (Taylor's Version) | 1,975,000 |
| 2024 | Taylor Swift | United States | The Tortured Poets Department | 3,491,000 |